FCC Chair Brendan Carr Denies Censoring Colbert Interview, Calls It A ‘Hoax’ | EUROtoday

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr on Wednesday denied the federal government censored CBS “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert after the community forbid him from airing an interview with a U.S. Senate candidate earlier this week.

“There was no censorship here at all,” Carr informed reporters.

Instead of censorship, Carr blamed Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) of committing a “hoax” associated to CBS not airing his interview.

“You had a Democrat candidate who understood the way the news media works and he took advantage of all of your, sort of, prior conceptions, to run a hoax, apparently for the purpose of raising money and getting clicks,” Carr claimed. “And the news media played right into it.”

The “hoax” declare doesn’t seem like factually supported, nevertheless: Colbert first introduced up the censorship to his viewers Monday, not Talarico.

“We were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers ― who called us directly ― that we could not have [Talarico] on the broadcast,” Colbert mentioned Monday.

“Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on,” Colbert added. “And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”

Colbert proceeded to elucidate that the FCC, underneath Carr, has threatened to require late evening TV speak reveals to provide equal time to each political candidate in a race, and it seems CBS determined to conform upfront. (Notably, Trump’s FCC has not threatened to use the identical rule to right-wing speak radio.)

“Now, as I said, at this point, he’s just released a letter that says he’s thinking about doing away with the exception for late night,” Colbert mentioned. “He hasn’t done away with it yet, but my network is unilaterally enforcing it as if he had … but I want to assure you, this decision is for purely financial reasons.”

Colbert accused CBS of caving to threats on Monday, saying the community informed him to not interview Talarico on his present.

Colbert mentioned CBS discouraged Talarico as a visitor, seemingly fearing the FCC would impose an equal-time rule that hasn’t beforehand been used for late-night speak reveals. Talarico is operating in opposition to Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) within the Democratic main for a U.S. Senate seat.

Talarico’s interview as an alternative aired on the “Late Show” YouTube channel, the place it shortly amassed tens of millions of views. The marketing campaign additionally mentioned it raised $2.5 million inside 24 hours after the interview aired.

In his press convention Wednesday, Carr claimed that Congress handed the equal-time rule so “the media elites in Hollywood and New York” can’t “pick the winners and losers in primaries.”

“There was one partisan candidate who fed this slop to the mainstream national news media and you guys ran for it,” Carr mentioned. “I was just laughing, it was clear this story was going to turn at some point and the truth was going to come out.”